Welsh: Stay focused, even amid cuts and scandal

In his latest “Airman to Airman” video, Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Welsh urged airmen to remain focused on their mission even in the face of trying times and scandal.

Welsh referred obliquely to the widening scandal involving cheating missileers, but sought to buck up the spirits of the force.

“The last couple of times I’ve talked to you, we’ve been talking about issues that are pretty uncomfortable,” Welsh said in the Feb. 3 video. “Things that we’re struggling a little bit in our Air Force. We’ve just added another one to the plate with some people who could potentially have set their integrity aside. The fact that we are dealing with them doesn’t take away from the fact that 99.9 percent of you out there still rock, and you do the nation’s business in a phenomenal way each and every day.”

Welsh said that even as budgets and resources shrink, the Air Force must keep pushing airmen to improve their warfighting skills and maintain its high training standards.

“We have always been the best trained air force on the planet,” Welsh said. “It can’t change. We have to stay that way.”